BIOLOGY 325 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS | NEW UPDATE 2026
Defining a plant - Traditional Approach - ANSWERS Characterized by
Observable traits, chemical, anatomical and morphology (most common)
•Green (chlorophyll pigments a and b) -photosynthesize
•Non-motile (usually doesn't move) -adult form saprophyte (vegetative)
•Eukaryotic -excludes algae/bacteria -
•Multi-cellular -tissues, organs
•Cell walls of cellulose (rigid)
•Storage of starch
•Whiplash flagella -some stage life cycle (lost or modified) -sexual/asexual
Defining a plant through Evolutionary History - ANSWERS looking at traits
(now DNA - systematic approach)
- Characterized by shared ancestors, common ancestry (relatedness)
- Now know that some photosynthetic organisms (green) are not plants since they
are not related -evolved independently (just because it's green doesn't make it a
plant (cyanobacteria)
Land Plants
,Scientific name?
Features (x6) - ANSWERS - Cuticle
- Alternation of generations (multicellular sporophyte and multicellular
gametophyte)
- Multicellular gametangia (gamete-producing structures)
- Multicellular sporangium (spore-producing structure)
- Embryo (young sporophyte)
- Parenchyma
Flowering Plants
Class and meaning
Where did it diverge from? - ANSWERS Angio = vessel -refers to the ovary
which develops into fruit. Diverged from Gymnosperms (seed)
- Angiosperms are the largest group of plants with an estimated 350,000-400,000
species divided into more than 400 families (6 x the number of species of ALL
other plant groups combined!)
- The class is the most recently evolved major group of plants, first appearing in
the fossil record during the lower Cretaceous Period about 125 mya
- Major radiation lead to global distribution around 95 mya
- Angiosperms quickly became the dominant plant
,Gymnosperms habitats? - ANSWERS Continue to rule in cold, dry or sandy
habitats
- regardless of origin of angiosperms, by end of cretaceous (65-70 million years
after first appearance) most flowering plant families had evolved
- provide much of our food, fiber, medicine and timber (angiosperms?)
- very difficult to identify earliest angiosperms from fossils
Set of diagnostic features of class Angiospermae
- also known as?
- features (10x)
TESTED ON - ANSWERS APOMORPHIES - changes that occur in evolutionary
time
Set of diagnostic features (very well defined group)
•Ovary wall (they have an embryo)
•Ovules with 2 integuments (progeny)
•Presence of flowers
•Double fertilization with triploid endosperm (unique to angiosperms)
•Specialized conductive cells
•Distinct architecture of pollen wall
, •Fruits
•Carpels
•Highly reduced male and female gametophytes (because they are so adaptive)
Distinct pattern of leaf venation and DNA sequences
Apomorphies (TESTED) - ANSWERS Common diagnostic features used to
separate extant (living) angiosperms from other seed plants -similarities clearly
indicate members of this phylum derived from single common ancestor.
Describe angiosperms - ANSWERS - They have true roots, stems, leaves,
flowers
- Angiosperms are more highly evolved than the algae, mosses, fungi and ferns.
Their advanced structures allow angiosperms to thrive on land
- Largest group of Land Plants
- Most important economically (food, medicine, lumber, fruites) and ecologically
Class angiospermae is known to have seeds _______ - ANSWERS Hidden.
Flowers led to divergence from gemnospherme.
Flowering plants are _____________ plants that are members of the large Division
(Phylum) _________________.
Past 20 years have treated flowering plants as Division _______________. -
ANSWERS Flowering plants are vascular plants that are members of the large
Division (Phylum) Tracheophyta.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS | NEW UPDATE 2026
Defining a plant - Traditional Approach - ANSWERS Characterized by
Observable traits, chemical, anatomical and morphology (most common)
•Green (chlorophyll pigments a and b) -photosynthesize
•Non-motile (usually doesn't move) -adult form saprophyte (vegetative)
•Eukaryotic -excludes algae/bacteria -
•Multi-cellular -tissues, organs
•Cell walls of cellulose (rigid)
•Storage of starch
•Whiplash flagella -some stage life cycle (lost or modified) -sexual/asexual
Defining a plant through Evolutionary History - ANSWERS looking at traits
(now DNA - systematic approach)
- Characterized by shared ancestors, common ancestry (relatedness)
- Now know that some photosynthetic organisms (green) are not plants since they
are not related -evolved independently (just because it's green doesn't make it a
plant (cyanobacteria)
Land Plants
,Scientific name?
Features (x6) - ANSWERS - Cuticle
- Alternation of generations (multicellular sporophyte and multicellular
gametophyte)
- Multicellular gametangia (gamete-producing structures)
- Multicellular sporangium (spore-producing structure)
- Embryo (young sporophyte)
- Parenchyma
Flowering Plants
Class and meaning
Where did it diverge from? - ANSWERS Angio = vessel -refers to the ovary
which develops into fruit. Diverged from Gymnosperms (seed)
- Angiosperms are the largest group of plants with an estimated 350,000-400,000
species divided into more than 400 families (6 x the number of species of ALL
other plant groups combined!)
- The class is the most recently evolved major group of plants, first appearing in
the fossil record during the lower Cretaceous Period about 125 mya
- Major radiation lead to global distribution around 95 mya
- Angiosperms quickly became the dominant plant
,Gymnosperms habitats? - ANSWERS Continue to rule in cold, dry or sandy
habitats
- regardless of origin of angiosperms, by end of cretaceous (65-70 million years
after first appearance) most flowering plant families had evolved
- provide much of our food, fiber, medicine and timber (angiosperms?)
- very difficult to identify earliest angiosperms from fossils
Set of diagnostic features of class Angiospermae
- also known as?
- features (10x)
TESTED ON - ANSWERS APOMORPHIES - changes that occur in evolutionary
time
Set of diagnostic features (very well defined group)
•Ovary wall (they have an embryo)
•Ovules with 2 integuments (progeny)
•Presence of flowers
•Double fertilization with triploid endosperm (unique to angiosperms)
•Specialized conductive cells
•Distinct architecture of pollen wall
, •Fruits
•Carpels
•Highly reduced male and female gametophytes (because they are so adaptive)
Distinct pattern of leaf venation and DNA sequences
Apomorphies (TESTED) - ANSWERS Common diagnostic features used to
separate extant (living) angiosperms from other seed plants -similarities clearly
indicate members of this phylum derived from single common ancestor.
Describe angiosperms - ANSWERS - They have true roots, stems, leaves,
flowers
- Angiosperms are more highly evolved than the algae, mosses, fungi and ferns.
Their advanced structures allow angiosperms to thrive on land
- Largest group of Land Plants
- Most important economically (food, medicine, lumber, fruites) and ecologically
Class angiospermae is known to have seeds _______ - ANSWERS Hidden.
Flowers led to divergence from gemnospherme.
Flowering plants are _____________ plants that are members of the large Division
(Phylum) _________________.
Past 20 years have treated flowering plants as Division _______________. -
ANSWERS Flowering plants are vascular plants that are members of the large
Division (Phylum) Tracheophyta.
